JAMES (12) played a match on Saturday and he was in great form. On Sunday morning he was vomiting so I kept him in and he lay on the sofa and watched Iv during the day. He slept all that night, but on Monday morning he said he was still not feeling better and he told me he had a headache and his neck was a little stiff. When he was getting dressed I noticed some spots on his chest - tiny purple ones.

I took him to the doctor. Our own doctor was away so it was a locum. The doctor said it was a virus and it was fine to send him back to school. But I was not happy so I brought him home and put him lying on the sofa. He ate something and fell asleep for a few hours. I just knew he was not alright and my husband Sean felt the same when he came home.

He went up to bed about 8.30 p.m. for a few hours. About an hour later he came down the stairs saying he did not feel well. He told me later that he had been hallucinating and could hear bombs exploding, I phoned another doctor straight away and James kept yawning and saying he just wanted to sleep.

I knew he had to go to hospital. The doctor arrived and he was excellent. He wasted no time and the ambulance arrived. It brought James to Cherry Orchard because it is just down the road from us. By the time we arrived he was unconscious even though I tried to keep him talking. They immediately set him up on drugs and did a lumbar puncture which he never even felt. I thought he must have been dead. When they found out the results they told me it was meningoceocal meningitis and that the next 12 hours would be crucial.

I don't remember too much about that night, just the word meningitis, which is every parent's nightmare. James woke about 7.45 a.m. and asked me if he was going to die. He doesn't remember that, though. They kept pumping in the anti-biotics although there was a lot of trouble with collapsing veins.

They were wonderful at the hospital. After a while they knew he was making a recovery but did not know if any permanent damage had been done. A day or two later they did an intelligence test to see if there was any brain damage but he was fine. For a long time afterward he got pains in his left eye, and it would be red so they did a brain scan, but it was fine.

Thank God he had no other lasting effects.

About 10 days before he had had an ear infection and had taken a course of penicillin. In the hospital they said that could have slowed down the progress of it. It does make it more puzzling as to how he got it because he was off school with the ear infection for a week and then he had mid- term break.

I'm still very nervous. It will always be with me and I also watch the other two boys, Luke (II) and Neil (6). It was rampant at the time 50 I can't understand how the doctor did not spot it. Doctors need to be more vigilant. All I can say to other parents is if you have a child who is sick and deteriorates quickly, to immediately call the doctor. A parent knows their own child best.